Equilibrium
by Mitzi3039
Summary: Sarah gets annoyed at her baby daughter and relives a dream she had at 15... BUT this time there is a very different ending that no one expected. Rated for future chapters.
1. Prologue

**Authors Note: This is my first ever Fan Fiction so could you let me know if a go a bit off character!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise from Labyrinth! I wish I did but I don't, I'm borrowing! Chloe and any other future OC's are mine, if you wish to use them, let me know! I am generous like that :-P .uk**

**Equilibrium**

By Mitzi3039

Beta- Synthetic_darkness

Prologue

Sarah was a 22 year old single mum and was stressed after a hard day looking after a non-stop screaming baby - so much so that she eventually gave in and went to bed. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't sleep. So she started thinking of her childhood;

She remembered Toby being born and also of her wicked step-mother and the father that never seemed to listen to her. She also remembered the strange dream she'd had, she wished Toby away to the Goblin King. It must've been a dream because after she'd woken up, she kept trying to prove the magic of the Labyrinth existed by wishing away pets but she never succeeded. So after Tinker, the guinea-pig, she decided the Labyrinth didn't exist and never gave it or its ruler another thought.

Chloe started screaming again. Maybe she should she test its magic one more time...

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Jareth was staring out over his beautiful kingdom. It was always beautiful when he was happy. The sun was shining and there was not a cloud on sight. Jareth wasn't one-hundred percent sure of what he was really happy about but he was sure that it was because not one wisher had disturbed him all week. He went to turn around to get ready for dinner - and heard a call.

He sighed and sent his goblins to take the child (a meaningless order as they'd already disappeared) before turning into his owl form and flying towards the aboveground.

*********************************

Sarah ran into her baby's bedroom to find Chloe gone, but the room was far from empty. There were all sorts of funny bangs and other odd sounds. This was all very strange and all very familiar at the same time - she remembered then. The dream. It wasn't a dream at all! The window burst open and a white owl flew in and transformed into someone she believed to exist only in fantasy.

Jareth started to circle her; she stood dead still waiting for him to say something.

"Well, Sarah, you don't seem to have learnt your lesson, do you?" Jareth asked in a dominating tone.

Sarah just stood for a moment before replying, quietly but quite sincerely, "Just give me back the baby, Jareth, now!"

"Oh, no, Sarah, you must know by now that I cannot do that," Jareth replied mockingly, "you will have to run my Labyrinth, again."

"Oh, come on Jareth. I have done it once before, I can do it again!"

"I wouldn't count on that if I were you. You do know that every time you enter my Labyrinth it gets harder."

Sarah turned to Jareth after a moment and challenged his Labyrinth and challenged him. So Jareth held out his hand for Sarah to take - but she hesitated.

"What's that for?" Sarah asked him, cautiously.

"If you want to go to my Labyrinth Sarah, you are going to have to take my hand," Jareth jeered, "if you don't want to save the child stay here and forget about her."

"How could I do that, Jareth? How could I abandon my own daughter?! I couldn't even abandon my _brother_!"

Jareth was about to reply but froze at the word daughter. He knew Sarah had most likely moved on after her last trip to his Labyrinth but it still shocked him. But he held out his hand again and she took it with a confident look in her eyes.

She felt a very strange dropping sensation and then they were on the hill at the start of the Labyrinth. Well, Sarah was but Jareth was no where to be seen. But then she heard a distant "good luck, Sarah" that sounded a lot like the king who had bought her here. Sarah looked out over the labyrinth below her and had the idea of planning a route now and sticking to it all the way through, that should get her through. Then she remembered how much the Labyrinth changed as you were going through it and so she deemed the plan pointless and started her journey through the king's merciless kingdom…


	2. Running the Labyrinth

A/N: Here is the next chapter! I have been typing like mad since Wednesday, so I hope you all like it and appreciate it! Thanks, I did put on my other chapter my email address, so you could ask me about my characters. But it didn't show so here it is: kaznia567 yahoo. co. uk Chapter 1

Jareth and baby Chloe appeared in the throne room and the goblins' started laughing at the baby. Jareth wasn't in the mood for the goblins' antics. He sat in his throne and the goblin's started to cheer with excitement as the woman set off to find her way to the very room they were in.

Jareth stood up violently, "All of you, OUT! I am not in the mood! Get on with your duties!" At this the Goblin's all rushed for the exits- they knew not when to mess with their King. At the sudden noise the baby awoke and looked around for a moment and screamed.

"Why, why do I always get them when they are hungry?" Because Jareth knew as well as anyone that the way Chloe was crying could only mean she was hungry. He picked up the noisy creature from the hole in the room, for children that were wished away, and carried her off to the kitchens.

"Yes, King Jareth what brings you to the kitchens at this time?" Hazelle asked him. Hazelle was Jareth's personal servant and when she wasn't needed then she would help in the kitchens.

"Is there _any_ way of shutting up this child?" Jareth held out Chloe still screaming.

"Yes, your majesty, I'll take the child and bring her back when she has quietened down a little." Hazelle took Chloe and walked off out of the kitchens, while Jareth walked back to his throne room sighing with relief. When Jareth was back in his throne room Keanu was waiting for him.

"Ah, Jareth, I see you have another hopeful running your Labyrinth!" He exclaimed excitedly. Keanu was Jareth's closest friend and had been since they were both boys. When they were about 600 they declared themselves brothers and have named each other since when anyone asked.

"Yes, I do Keanu. But I am quite worried about this one."

Keanu hesitated before answering, "Why Jareth? Who is she?"

Jareth turned round and looked his friend in the eyes and almost whispered, "Sarah Williams."

Keanu looked shocked, "you mean, _the_ Sarah Williams, the one who defeated you and your Labyrinth for her brother! The one _you fell in love with_!"

Jareth was lucky that Keanu was the only person who had ever seen him weak. "Yes, the very same Sarah. I am scared because I have been preparing for the day she came back, if she ever came back, and so my Labyrinth is a lot harder than it was the last time she was here. I want her to be happy Keanu, I am going to turn her daughter into a Goblin, how can she be happy if I do that?"

Keanu looked away from the king, "I don't know, but I _do_ know that you will figure out something!"

Jareth stood and composed himself back to the menacing King he was supposed to be, then pulled out a crystal and started to watch Sarah's progress through his Labyrinth…

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Sarah had found the entrance gate but there had been no Hoggle there to let her in so she pulled open the doors with all her might as they were, very heavy. When the doors were open she stepped though them to what she remembered as a very long alley with hidden openings. But instead there were large hedges in very strange shapes, from rabbits to Dragons. Sarah looked around in wonder at the green creatures. She walked up to a dog looking bush and as she got closer to the bush the dog started to move and take the shape of a real dog. Sarah staggered back as the dog turned to face her. Then before she could turn and run, the dog had leapt at her and pinned her down. She was about to scream but then the dog started licking her face. Instead of screaming, Sarah laughed. The dog jumped off and started wagging it's tail and running around.

"_That_ is not quite what I expected!" Sarah exclaimed, and then she looked around at the more dangerous beasts and guessed not all of them were _this_ friendly. The dog barked at her and so she picked herself up and looked for a suitable way through the bushes. But there were dangerous and cuddly animals in every direction.

"Okay then, come on… Bound … yeah, that's a good name! Come on then Bound, let's go… that way!" Sarah proclaimed as she started to walk in the direction she had chosen. As they got closer to an elephant shaped hedge it started to come to life. Sarah staggered back into a weasel and a penguin. She ran as fast as possible away from the animals, Bound was running behind her snapping at anything that wouldn't bite back.

Once they were at the other end they had to climb a wall. Sarah leapt to the top then remembered Bound, so she jumped back down and lifted the dog up onto the wall before jumping back herself. She jumped down the other side as Bounce slid down the wall and barked excitedly.

"Well, at least _you_ enjoyed that!" Sarah slumped down against the wall.

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Keanu walked back into the throne room, Jareth was slouching across his throne looking into one of his crystals.

"Jareth, are you okay? You look more distant than usual," Keanu looked at the crystal and saw Sarah and a dog. "Where did the dog come from?"

"The field of living bushes," Jareth's eyes didn't leave the crystal. "and he seems to have taken a liking to her."

"Oh, okay, and Hazelle came to find you about the fact the dinner is ready that you missed earlier."

Jareth looked up at his friend, "Okay, thank you Keanu, would you care to join me?"

"That would be nice Jareth, Hazelle made sure the cooks did enough for me too as I was here." And the pair got up at left for dinner.

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Sarah was wandering along a very long path with water on either side that looked very deep. Bound was panting heavily from so much running and chasing but once he fell in the water he has stayed very calm.

"Come on Bounce, if we keep going, we will get there in time, I know it!"

Then suddenly there was a wood right in front of them. Sarah was so shocked that she took a step back and the wood disappeared. Slowly she took the step forward again and the wood appeared.

"Nothing is what it seems in this place!" Bound ran ahead into the trees so Sarah guessed there was nothing really dangerous ahead of her.

*********************

Jareth and Keanu were eating their meal in silence as the sun started to dip lower into the sky. Hazelle walked into the room holding a sleeping Chloe. Jareth looked over and rolled his eyes.

"Not _that thing_ again. Take it away, Hazelle." Jareth ordered.

"But, Jareth, it was crying earlier because it was hungry, even you know that! Why do you suddenly hate this child?" Hazelle countered.

Jareth looked at the clock on the mantle, only ten minutes to go until Sarah's thirteen hours were up. He produced a crystal and looked at how the woman was doing. She had got as far as the end of the large wooded maze after the river. She wasn't even half way through! There was no way she was going to make it to the end of his Labyrinth in time to save her daughter.

"Keanu, I'm going to talk with Sarah, see if I can bargain with her. Hazelle, keep the child for a few more minutes." Jareth decided.

"Okay Jareth, we'll be here, don't forget to talk to me afterwards!" Keanu answered.

So Jareth threw a crystal in the air and appeared next to Sarah and Bound, Sarah left backwards really quickly and Bound started to growl.

"I-it's okay Bound, don't worry, it's only Jareth." Sarah spoke gently to the dog.

"_Only_, thank you, I know when I am appreciated! Anyway, did you know you only have ten minutes left-"

"NO! I don't, I haven't been here _that_ long, I can't have!" Sarah sounded exasperated.

"Yes, Sarah, I am afraid your daughter will become a goblin," Jareth paused, "unless… I strike you a deal now."

"Okay, anything for my little Chloe!"

"Sarah, you may go either way on this deal, Sarah. Here are my terms; you stay here for one year as my personal servant and Chloe gets to go home to her father. When you return, they will never remember you gone."

Sarah paused and turned away from Jareth who was staring at her waiting for an answer.

"You have five minutes, once the thirteen hours are up, I get the child no matter what, you agree to my terms and Chloe lives a human life." Jareth explained.

Sarah looked at him, "can't Chloe live here with me?"

"No, sorry Sarah, human children can't live longer than a day in the Labyrinth. That is why I turn them to goblins."

Sarah hesitated again. "Okay Jareth, I agree to your terms. Let Chloe go and take me for the year."

It was decided, Jareth held out his hand for Sarah and this time she got hold of Bound and took it. After the dropping feeling they appeared in a large room that must be the dinner hall.

"Jareth, the child vanished!" Hazelle sounded hysterical.

"Don't worry Hazelle, I sent her home, Sarah and I have struck a little deal."


End file.
